Help! He's starting to pluck!

[dodgewoman]

I am beside myself. I thought Roscoe was going through his first molt. He lost a tail feather yesterday and has been "loosing" numerous other feathers. Well, today I saw him actually chewing on his chest feathers I looked more closely and yup, quiet a few on his chest near his leg are destroyed/missing. He is just barely a year old(turned 1 last week) why would he be doing this? I'm wondering if it's cause he is dry. He refuses to take a bath, when I try to mist him he flies off his perch in a panic. He has bowl dived twice so I put a pan of shallow water in his cage while he was doing this, nope wouldn't touch it. I don't know what to do, I don't want him to pluck himself bare

[Lisa B]

Sometimes while moulting, they will help the feathers along. often preening the old ones out. a heavy moult if he never had one, you will see alot of feathers.
Emma hates to bathe as well. I started misting, and she had the same reaction your guy did....however, she is getting used to it a bit.
have you tried getting him in the shower?
he will be itchy as the new ones are coming in.

also, is there anything new or different in your house or in his view?

[birdlady49]

You have a wonderful opportunity to nip this in the bud, if in fact he has started plucking. First, medical reasons have to be eliminated and that will require a visit to your avian vet for some blood letting.

After the tests come back negative, you can work on eliminating environmental problems and hopefully prevent future plucking.

[dodgewoman]

I haven't tried getting him in the shower, I'm afraid he will freak out. I do take him in the bathroom while I take a shower on the weekends.

Nothing new in his view. I have changed a few toys around in his cage but he has been playing with them so I wouldn't think that would be an issue.

He just went to the vet a little over a month ago, everything was fine then. I haven't changed a thing since then(except the toys). I'm really starting to wonder if he is way to dry.

I hope I can stop this soon/now.

[PowerBBS]

You know our Skoobie Doo wont' let us mist him and typically would only bowl dive. To address this problem to get him the "proper" bath he needs we did this.

Put on some shorts and a tee shirt and get your fid on your shoulder. Get the water in the "shower" turned on and just warm enough for YOU to bare. You don't want "warm/hot" water. Not much warmer than room temp. (It will most likely feel a bit chilly to you). Now step into the shower with your fid on your shoulder and get him under the shower head (make sure you don't have the water on with any pressure behind it - it should just be flowing at a normal rate through the shower head).

Close the curtain or door before you put him under the head as he'll jump away most likely. In any means, just keep turning around (as he's gonna keep running to the "dry" shoulder) until you get him good and wet.

That's what we did... try it out and maybe it'll work.

[dodgewoman]

Hmmm, good idea to try, Thanks! Our shower stall is very tiny so if I'm in there he won't have much place to go.

[wildvet]

you must stop its habbit of plucking before he get used to it... there are lots of reasons why the birds pluck abnormally.. but none confirms which reallly is the cause... try to give vitamins and minerals to your animal.. and visit a vet to check for protozoans.... and treat if confirmed positive...

but the most common cause of feather plucking in my experience is deppression... have you been out of town lately? this is the hardest to solved even if you are now back... but once the problem start its really hard to solve.. give him toys.. keep him busy... in my case i have a client with same problem.. we just provide toys and medicate it with alovera.. i think alovera dont really cure but at least it discourages the animal to pluck. so feathers will recover.. and at the same time bond with the bird and dont depress him again.

-wildvet

[Tom Lawless]

I have a shower perch for my guys. If your stall isn't too small I'd recommend getting one. They are happy to be in the shower with me (3-4 times a week) so that's the draw. The perch is out of the stream of water but they get misted just from me moving around and the general humidity is good for them too. I am even able to get them to perch on my hand and get them doused a little bit (Bing is much better about it than Davey). One word of caution, don't admit you shower with your parrot to your non bird owning friends. They really think you've gone over the edge when you admit to doing this.

[winglet]

As you can see from a previous post I am having the same "plucking" problem with my Africian Grey .
It really is upsetting and it's not as easy as some people may think to cure them of this problem.Charlie has been plucking for quite a while now, I would say close on a year. First thing I did was see an avian vet ....nothing medicially wrong which is what we all want to hear. His diet is good he gets plenty of interaction time, plenty of time out of his cage.He really does get all the attention in the house.I am careful not to change his routine I just can't see why he is plucking!! I spray him regularly with hand hot water,I have spent a fourtune of Aloe Vera but nothing seems to be workingThe money I spend is unimportant I would pay anything to stop this habit.....as that is what I think it is right now. The avian vet gave me seditives to give him after a few months still no change so I stopped giving them as there was no point in giving medication when they were doing nothing at all.Every month I take Charlie to the vet but still we can't come up with WHY he is doing this.At the moment another member suggested "Virgin Red Palm Oil" I have just had a delivery of it today so I will try that and see how it goes

[Parrotpeople]

Poppy won't stay on a perch or me in the shower. So I kneel on the floor outside of the tub, place him on the tub floor in the back half, start the water & let some pool so he's standing in a little, then put the shower on lightly.

He can't get out b/c the shower curtain is blocking the back half & I'm in the front & it's too high to fly over. He now likes it & will actually play in the water he's standing in.

You'll have to get him wet, he needs it & I'll bet he starts to enjoy it in whatever way you find that works best for you both. Good luck.